Immigration

[andrewducker]

Leaving asylum to one side for a moment as a special case:
[Poll #1558346]

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Is there an option for "I was born in France and have lived in France for 10 years and was a student in France so why the fuck has the EU made it virtually impossible for me to live here legally simply because my parents are American?"

Give me a visa and the EU would get tax money from me for christ sakes!

[andrewducker]

That's very odd - does France not automatically give citizenship rights to people born there?

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

They keep telling me that because I didn't do a year in the French army in my 20s that I'm fucked.

[andrewducker]

Good Lord. Did they even ask you to?

I hadn't realised that France used to have military service.

Ok, yes, that sucks.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

When I was about 23 or so they sent me a letter saying I'd have to do a year in their military service before I was 25 or lose all French rights.

I checked with a lawyer who told me that if I joined the French military the American government could prosecute me for serving in a foreign army.

[seph-hazard.livejournal.com]

*head/desk*

My god, that's stupid.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Yes but military service has been abolished since!

It was still in force when I would have been eligible (I see you're 5 years older than me), but I got around it by not living in France. I had to get my uni to sign a piece of paper saying I was studying in London. Then there was some deal about how for the next x years (10?) I'd not be able to live in France for more than a few months a year without being liable for it.

I don't know which 10 years you were in France but there should be room to wangle surely?

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I've been in France since I was 31.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

France changes the rules on citizenship every few years, depending on the government in power.

Caractacus is currently able to be French. At other times I'm not sure if she might have been.